The present invention generally relates to radios and, more particularly, to automotive radios and other entertainment systems with a “rewind” capability on one or more channels that enables listeners to hear the last few minutes of one or more programs, in response to their pressing of a rewind button on the radio or entertainment system.
Most people who listen to a car radios, switch regularly between the program channels. Often, when they switch to one of the channels, they hear the last few moments of a segment that they would have liked to have heard from the beginning, except that now it is too late, because they have missed it.
Moreover, even while listening to a car radio broadcast, the minds and ears of drivers wander by not being fully attentive to the radio content, due to the higher priority of driving safety. As a result, it is not uncommon that while listening to the radio—while driving—drivers do not pay full attention to a segment that they would like to have carefully listened to. Again, by the time the driver becomes aware of that desire, it is too late.
A conventional art search has turned up U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,243,594; 6,163,508; 6,067,278; 5,671,195; 5,633,837; 5,345,430; 5,263,199; 4,713,801; and 4,430,676. The contents of these patents are incorporated by reference herein to provide support for the conventional circuitry that is already known from the prior art, which may support elements of the inventions described herein.
Among these documents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,430 is directed to a recording device and method for recovering a portion of a commercial radio or TV broadcast immediately after listening to it. The device consists of a short term memory media that is used to continuously record the last few minutes of the program being monitored. A control object module causes the material on the short term storage media to be transferred to a long-term storage media. U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,837 similarly describes an automobile recorder that allows a user to continuously record the contents of radio programs and then send it to a solid state memory and thereafter transfer selected portions to a cassette tape or recordable compact disc. These documents are believed to fail to describe a simple to use facility and method for instant replay of program content that does not compromise driving safety nor provide simultaneous, multi-channel recording and play back capabilities.